Currently submitted to: Online Journal of Public Health Informatics
Date Submitted: May 28, 2026
Open Peer Review Period: Jun 8, 2026 - Aug 3, 2026
(currently open for review)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
The Influence of Social Media on Contraceptive Knowledge, Attitudes, and Usage Among Adolescents in Akuapem North Municipality of Ghana: a cross-sectional study design.
ABSTRACT
Background:
Social media is a primary source of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information for adolescents, yet its impact on contraceptive behaviors in low-resource settings is not well-established.
Objective:
This study examined the effects of social media on adolescents' contraceptive knowledge, attitudes, and use in the Akuapem North Municipality, Ghana.
Methods:
A cross-sectional study design was used to elicit responses from 384 adolescents aged 10-19 years, recruited through simple random sampling from three schools. Data was collected using a structured, self-administered questionnaire. Data analyses included descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression performed with SPSS v27.0 to identify predictors of contraceptive use.
Results:
A total of 384 participants were recruited for the study, Majority (62.50%) were 16-19 years old. Nearly three quarters (34.38%) spend averagely three hours per day on social media with nearly half (47.92%) having an encounter with a health-related post three times in a day. TikTok (33.00%) and X(twitter) (31.10%) were frequently used social media with 41.41% being familiar with at least two contraceptive methods. Over one fourth (30.47%) indicated the main purpose of contraceptives was pregnancy control. A third (32.3%) indicated they had used contraceptive before and 31.26% indicated they are Likely to use contraceptive after learning from social media. Condoms (28.9%) and birth control pills (22.2%) were most used contraceptives. Post on on contraceptive use on social media was less likely among primary source of health information from friends/peers (COR= 0.31, 95%CL:(0.17-0.59), P= <0.001) as well as those who had their primary source of health information from health professionals (COR= 0.43, 95%CL: 0.19-0.94, P= 0.035).
Conclusions:
Despite significant exposure to contraceptive content on social media, actual use remains low, hindered by significant knowledge gaps and socio-cultural barriers. Public health interventions should integrate evidence-based, adolescent-friendly SRH messaging delivered by healthcare professionals on popular platforms like TikTok, X, and Facebook, with hashtags for easy access, since a significant proportion of adolescent’s access information on SRH through this channel.
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